MidEast

Israel’s security cabinet has convened several times in recent days, holding “extremely significant” meetings to discuss the threats on Israel’s northern border, as well as necessary diplomatic activity to prevent Syria from turning into a foothold for Iranian forces, The Jerusalem Postreported.

The Channel 10 report stated that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held telephone conversations with world leaders and warned them of Iran’s growing influence in Lebanon and Syria through their terror proxy Hezbollah and Iranian-backed Shiite militia forces in Syria.

The discussions are also said to have focused on the “day-after” scenario in Syria with regime President Bashar Assad emerging as the victor. Syrian forces have been regaining significant territory with the help of Russian airpower and Iranian-backed militia, now controlling over 70% of the country, including the Syrian Golan re-taken from rebels in December.

Israeli officials have repeatedly warned of Iranian efforts to establish a foothold along its border and the Islamic Republic’s attempts to smuggle sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israeli Defense Minister, Avigdor Liberman, warned in October that the next war will immediately become a battle on two fronts. “We are supposed to prepare for every possible scenario, and the new reality also prepares new challenges for us. If we once talked about the Lebanese sector, then there is no more such a sector, there is a northern sector in every development,” he stated.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen., Gadi Eisenkot, observed last week that Iran’s hegemonic ambitions in the region pose a multi-dimensional threat to the Jewish State. The first challenge is the Islamic Republic’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, followed by Tehran’s “tremendous effort” to create a Shiite Crescent from Iran to Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain and even the Gaza Strip.

Eisenkot further stated that some 10,000 Shiite militia fighters and an additional 80,000 Hezbollah forces are fighting in Syria on behalf of the Assad regime. Iran funds the Lebanese terror group with $700 million per year and provides another $100 million to other Iranian-backed militia.